Presettlement Wildlife and Habitat of Montana: An Overview

Annotation Of Expeditions And Individuals Recording Natural History Notes

Folsom-Cook Expedition, 1869:

This was the first of a series of six expeditions into what was
to become Yellowstone National Park. This was a privately funded
expedition and consisted of David E. Folsom, Charles W. Cook, and
William Peterson. The expedition started near the Three Forks of
the Missouri, crossed Bozeman Pass, ascended the Yellowstone
River to Yellowstone Lake, and then returned to Virginia City by
following the Madison River. The men kept a journal of their
observations from which Folsom wrote an excellent article. This
journal has been reconstructed by a later author.

Bibliography:

Brown, M.H. 1969. The plainsmen of the Yellowstone: A history of the
Yellowstone Basin. Bison Books, Univ. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.
Chittenden, H.M. 1985. The Yellowstone National Park. The Robert Clark
Co., Cincinnati, OH.
Folsom, D.E. 1894. Folsom-Cook exploration of the upper Yellowstone in
the year 1869. St. Paul, MN.
Haines, A.L. 1965. The valley of the upper Yellowstone: An exploration
of the headwaters of the Yellowstone River in the year 1869. The
journal of Charles W. Cook, David E. Folsom, and William Peterson.
Univ. of Oklahoma Press, Norman. 80 pp [This book contains an
excellent bibliography detailing the sources for the reassembled
journal]
Schullery, P. and L Whittlesey. 1992. The documentary record of wolves
and related wildlife in the Yellowstone National Park area prior to
1882. Pages 1-4 to 1-174 in Varely, J.D. and W.G. Brewster,
eds., Wolves for Yellowstone? A report to the United States
Congress, Volume IV research and analysis. National Park Service,
Yellowstone National Park, WY. [This report is a definitive account
of wildlife and habitat conditions in the Park prior to 1882. It
contains detailed summaries of all visitors to the Park area during
this time period who left a written record. The bibliography of this
publication contains over 220 citations. It is highly recommended
that anyone desiring information about the early history of the
Yellowstone Park area obtain a copy of this report. (Our report only
includes summaries of the major expeditions to Yellowstone.)]